Monett, Mo.-based core system developer Symitar announcedThursday that as of June 30, the end of its fiscal year, it hadadded 44 new credit union clients. The figure led the company toproclaim it has the largest market share of credit unions withassets exceeding $50 million.

Five of the credit unions that switched to Symitar during itsfiscal 2014 have assets of more than $1 billion, according to thecompany. All in, Symitar said it now has 90 of the 218 creditunions with more than $1 billion in assets.

It claimed 820 credit unions total, as counted at the end ofwhat Symitar said was its 30th year in business.

Callahan & Associates data challenges Symitar's claim ofmarket share superiority, showing Fiserv maintains its lead incores. Per Callahan, Fiserv has 2,241 core customers overall, 91 ofthem credit unions of a billion dollars or more.

However, Symitar President Ted Bilke countered that as Symitarworks through its installation pipeline, it will lead the $1billion and larger category.

“We see ourselves in the leadership position in cores withcredit unions,” he said.

Third party experts have been quick to offer insights into whatis occurring in the core system market, especially for largercredit unions.

Brad Smith, president of core consultant Abound Resources inAustin, Texas, attributed the apparent Symitar rise to lingeringproblems faced by its arch rival, Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv.That firm suffered significant embarrassment when it killed offdevelopment of its Acumen core, which had been billed as a new core for a new era,but was plagued by problems.

Fiserv also in January 2013 bought for roughly $1 billion competitor Open Solutions and itsinnovative DNA core, largely to satisfy the large credit unions forwhich Acumen had been intended.

“Fiserv has been focused on the OSIacquisition/integration and cleaning up the Acumen mess and stilldoesn't seem to have a good go-to-market strategy for larger creditunions. As they've stumbled, Symitar has been building on itssuccess and still has the momentum,” Smith said.

Atlanta-based consultant David Gibbard, formerly a senior vice president at Birmingham,Ala.-based technology CUSO EPL, said Symitar is ascending because“credit unions feel they have more control over other solutionswhen they are on Symitar.”

That, he explained, is because Fiserv's reputation is that itprefers to use its own, proprietary solutions for home banking,mobile banking, and the like to augment a core.

Symitar, on the other hand, portrays its core system as open;that is, easy to interface with add-ons. That difference, Gibbardsaid, is gaining favor with credit union executives.

Sam Kilmer, a senior director at Cornerstone Advisors inScottsdale, Ariz., said, “Symitar already grabbed the momentumbefore, and now with their solid client satisfaction, Symitarhas just increasingly become the safe option.”

Scott Hodgins, another Cornerstone expert, expressed a similaropinion, but added that all is not gloomy for Fiserv.

“Smaller credit unions buy Symitar for the safe bet; big creditunions because of their integration openness and very strong retailfunctionality. DNA is being much better received and more widelyincluded in system selections now after the Fiservacquisition.”

At Symitar, Bilke said when he goes head to head against DNA, “we win 55%of the time.”

He agreed that openness is a Symitar advantage.

“When we win, that's often why,” he said.